Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

I am a Stephen Minister.

I was commissioned on June 14, 2009. As I knelt at the altar to receive my commissioning, the Lord brought to my remembrance the date and its significance. I had not given thought to it before, but love whispers it dawned on me as I knelt there that this day was the exact day of the 25th anniversary of my Mom’s death. I wept as I received God’s blessing.

It wasn’t long afterwards that the Stephen Minister Manager called me with a care receiver. He told me that as soon as he heard of her situation love whispers he knew without a doubt that I was the one to give her care.

Without divulging any names to maintain anonymity, this was her situation. Love whispers Christmas was fast approaching and my care receiver was in deep depression and mourning for her oldest son who, in his early 20’s, had overdosed and died earlier that year.

As I started to meet with her and talk with her and get to know her we were both surprised (and as fellow believers, awed) to find that love whispers her oldest of three sons had overdosed on the exact day that my husband and I had moved from the country into our new home in the township near the city in which she lived.

Her husband, the son’s father, had died fairly young several years earlier and she was contemplating suicide herself and this is why. She had read…

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Mat 21:22

…and was still believing…even almost a year after her son’s death!…that God would raise her son from the dead because she believed Him to do it, but He wasn’t answering her prayer. She was at the end of her faith.

Oh, did I pray!

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Mat 6:8

I did not know what I needed to say to her and I felt utterly helpless. I prayed and prayed and prayed and sought God. And this is the gem that love whispers God in His infinite wisdom revealed to me to say to her.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14

When I shared that with her I could see love whispers the light go on in her eyes. She realized love whispers it was not God’s will that her son be raised.

After the light went on in her eyes I could see that she now was floundering because the foundation she had been clinging to for almost a year had been pulled out from underneath her. I then shared something with her that love whispers my pastor had shared with me about her situation to restore to her a foundation upon which to stand.

“That same faith with which you believed God to raise your son from the dead is the same faith which will sustain you all the days of your life.”

Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. Eph 2:20

And here is the greatest love whisper of all in this entire Stephen Ministry relationship:

As my care receiver was recovering from her depression and we were coming to the end of our relationship love whispers the Lord brought to my memory one more thing…

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

…a long time ago, several years ago in fact, when I still lived in a little country town and was first coming to faith. At that time, the Lord was especially dealing with me on unconditional forgiveness. I had an encounter with my as yet unknown care receiver and her sons. I was riding my bike to a local convenience store and as I pulled in a young voice from the backseat of a car parked there yelled, “Hey! Your a** is too fat to ride that bike.”

and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sinagainst us. Matthew 6:12

I noticed 3 young boys sitting side by side laughing at me. I walked over to the car and told them something along these lines, “We’ll just wait until your parents comes out and see what they have to say.” The boys were still laughing when out walked their Mom (my years later care receiver). When I shared with her what her son said to me and requested that she ask him to apologize to me she screamed at me, “Their father just died, so leave us alone!!!” as if that were an excuse for bad behavior. She then got in the car and drove off.

During our later Stephen Ministry relationship I never shared that memory with her.

From: When Love Whispers Your Name

If love whispers your name
Breathes in your ear
Sighs in the rain
Love is worth every fall
Even to beg
Even to crawl

Love is worth every wound
Each lonely day,
Each sleepless night
Love is worth every wound
The price that you pay
To live in the light

~Richard Thompson

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But thegreatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13

Love whispers.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

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About lifevine

Hi! My name is Amy. I am a former atheist and, for a season, practiced witchcraft. God drew me out of darkness 17 years ago and gave me the spiritual gifts of knowing and faith. He gives me daily encouragement and affirmation and I hope to share Him with you. If you have not yet met the one true God, His name is Jesus Christ, and may I be the first to introduce you to Him? He is the Restorative Savior God promised Adam and Eve 6,000 years ago (Genesis 3:15) after they had sinned in the garden, bringing separation from God because of disobedience. It is rightly reported that a little over 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem He was born of a virgin, lived a blameless perfect life in and around Jerusalem, died on a cross on Golgotha for the world's sin, and 3 days later rose again. YES! ROSE AGAIN! AMAZING! Please get baptized in His name, and walk in an eternal restored fellowship with Christ. You can get to know Him by reading, marking, and inwardly digesting His Word.... His Holy Bible.